HOUSTON -- Two migrants in the U.S. without legal permission were shot, one of them fatally, by two men in a pickup truck that approached them as they walked along a roadway in West Texas, according to court documents filed Thursday.
After the shooting, which took place Tuesday evening, the truck was found parked at a home not far from the local sheriff's office in Hudspeth County, a rural area east of El Paso that runs from the border with Mexico to the state line of New Mexico.
Two men were arrested late Wednesday in connection with the shooting, law enforcement officials said: Michael Sheppard, a warden at a local jail, and his twin brother, Mark Sheppard.
Both men were charged with manslaughter, according to legal documentss in the case. Neither could be immediately reached for comment.
The migrants were walking in a group of four people along a roadway near Sierra Blanca, Texas, when they stopped at a water tank, the official said. While they were there, the pickup truck approached and then stopped. The migrants told investigators they tried to hide behind the tank.
The two men who emerged from the truck approached them and fired at least two times, the migrants said. One shot hit one of the migrants in the head, killing him; another shot hit a female migrant in the stomach. She was taken to a hospital, where she was recovering, according to a statement from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the case.
The truck was traced by investigators, according to the documents.
"We all responded," First Deputy Chief Lasaro Salgado of the Hudspeth County sheriff's office said, describing the night of the shooting. "We handed the investigation to the Rangers."
The deputy said that the Texas Rangers arrested the Sheppards, both 60.
The FBI, Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations are assisting in the investigation, according to a spokesperson for the Rangers, who declined to provide further details on the shooting.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.